Episode 19 Gardeners' World

BIRDSONG

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

I'm just supporting this lovely white buddleia.

It's flowering fantastically well.

But it's grown so lushly that it's falling all over

the plants around it, because, this year, I think I pruned it wrong.

I just cut them back by half, thinking there would be

a framework and then they'd grow out towards the light and flower better.

In fact, what's happened is they've grown early and fast

and the water hasn't ripened and hardened off properly,

hence the floppiness.

So next year, I'll cut it back really hard

and give it a chance to establish a woody framework.

However, I'll try and get some things right

for the rest of today's programme.

This week, Carol meets one of our gardening heroes,

who's singing the praises of an often-overlooked plant.

Just look at these. They're sunny, they're smiley flowers.

They make you feel happy.

And Joe starts a series of visits to some remarkable allotments.

This is absolutely beautiful. You've obviously got a very keen eye.

I try to combine things the way I feel looks good.

It's like painting a picture, for me.

The white garden is only in its second year, so it's new.

But on the whole, it is a joy.

Mm, it's lovely and fragrant.

The Agapanthus, the Pelargoniums, the snapdragons, the Ammi majus.

All have got that light, frothy profusion

of white flowers that I wanted from it.

However, there is an intruder.

This pink hollyhock is part of a batch

of rather delicate white and pink ones that are doing well,

but this is either a rogue seed that's got in the batch

or has reverted. Nothing wrong with it at all, in context.

In fact. it would be brilliant in the cottage garden,

but it jars with everything else, so it's coming out.

That can go in a vase and the plant will be dug out.

I want to start collecting seed from the plants that

I do want to keep in here, so that I've got lots of new plants

that I can create without spending money.

Collecting seed at this time of year is dead easy.

For example, this Astrantia has got flowers that have gone to seed.

Now is a really good time to collect seed,

because we know these plants are happy and healthy,

we can see what they look like,

whereas, if you leave it to autumn, they're faded,

the seeds are falling and you won't be able to control

the situation so well.

There is no better way of raising plants cheaply,

successfully from your garden than by growing them from seed.

Now, what you do need to have are either some paper bags

or paper envelopes.

Really important that they're paper, because if you use plastic,

the moisture in the seed head or the stem or even the seed itself

will evaporate, collect on the inside of the plastic.

Then, you can rot the seeds or trigger germination,

and they don't store at all well if they're wet.

That's it. It's as simple as that.

I could store these till next spring,

as long as I keep them somewhere cool and dark.

You can do this for the whole range of plants.

Poppies, for example, once the seed heads are dry and you shake it

and you can hear the seeds inside rattle,

they're good for collecting, too.

Foxglove seeds are tiny. There will be thousands in there.

These, I will sew straightaway, because they are biannual

and they develop their roots and foliage the first year

and then develop a flower spike the second and sometimes the third year.

Now this year, Carol has been visiting people

who have given their lives to either collecting or growing

those plants that have become icons in our gardens.

This week, she's meeting perhaps the greatest plant guru

of them all - Roy Lancaster.

Between them, they're looking at one of our most familiar garden shrubs.

The bright yellow flowers of Hypericum shine out

for many of our gardens.

Yet for all their joy, these humble blooms

are often overlooked and undervalued.

This group of plants have a lot more to them than might meet the eye.

Roy Lancaster is one of the most influential plantsmen

of our time and he has a deep passion for all that grows.

Hypericum is one genus he holds especially dear.

Roy, during your life you've hardly ever been at home, have you?

-You've been travelling the world.

-ROY LAUGHS

Well, I love travelling. That's for certain.

It's amazing, you know, how many native plants

I first got to know when I was a boy, I've seen later on travels abroad.

How important do you think it is to find out about plants

and where they grow, where they come from?

Well, I think for a gardener, it's all about growing a plant -

what does it need, what kind of soil, what company does it like?

There's no better way of finding that out than to see where

the plants choose to grow, as against where we would like them to grow.

So why Hypericums, Roy? When did you first get interested in them?

Just look at these. They're sunny, they're smiley flowers.

They make you feel happy.

Hypericums are found almost all around the world,

but especially the shrubby ones that we grow in our gardens

in the mountains of the Himalayas and China.

My first expedition in 1971, to Nepal, to me was a revelation.

It changed my life for ever.

I saw several different species

and we were able to collect seeds of them.

They're still in gardens

and there are many of them in the hillier gardens here.

Fantastic.

This is thought to be Hypericum. This is probably the most popular,

widely planted of all the shrubby Hypericum Hidcote.

It's named after Hidcote Manor Gardens, where this plant was found.

It's an absolutely brilliant garden plant.

Grow in any soil, sun or shade.

But this is only one of so many good Hypericums.

There are so many others in the world

that are worth growing in cultivation.

This is one of the best, one of the most spectacular.

It has the largest flowers of any

of the shrubby Hypericums in cultivation, certainly.

It's called Rowallane, Hypericum Rowallane.

Sadly, it's not the hardiest one.

Hidcote will grow anywhere, no problem,

but this needs nice, sheltered, mild areas.

If you look at this one here, it's the perfect flower.

Nice cup-shaped, or bull-shaped.

Turn it over, you see the five sepals there.

In this case, they're spoon-shaped, almost.

Then you get the five petals curving in there at the mouth.

-Then you get the bundles of stamens.

-Tiny little antlers.

-They make this powder puff, don't they?

-That's right.

Then here's the ovary, the green ovary in the centre,

and the styles, five styles, which form a column.

These are green now, but eventually when they're ripened,

they end up brown and dry.

Like a dry capsule packed with seeds.

Possibly some of those seeds are fertile.

It'd be worth having a try, wouldn't it?

-Well, I wouldn't mind.

-See if we can make a new Hypericum.

As long as you give me a plant, if you're successful and I'm not.

-What a beauty!

-Isn't this something?

-It really is. It's lovely.

-Yeah.

The first thing you notice, I think,

quite apart from its lovely spreading habit,

is how red-tinged it is.

-That's right.

-Everything - the stems, the buds, the new shoots.

Yeah. And look how well it goes with that Geranium Rozanne.

I mean to find one that isn't just an individual shrub,

but that you can mix and mingle with other things is just wonderful.

-What a combination that blue and yellow is.

-It's a winner, isn't it?

Absolutely lovely.

I had no idea what an enormously diverse

group of plants Hypericums were.

What a treat. I'm in the flowerbed with two Lancasters.

THEY LAUGH

-This is Hypericum lancasteri.

-That's right. Obviously very special to me.

In 1980, I took a group of really enthusiastic garden lovers

to Yunnan in China.

Above the city accompanying the capital,

known as the City of Eternal Spring. Right place to be.

All manner of wonderful plants that I recognised from cultivation

and others I didn't recognise.

This was one of them.

-It's just coming into flower, isn't it?

-Mm.

-So these are the calyces?

-That's right.

-You get this just gorgeous starry effect.

-Indeed.

Of course, this plant is cut down in late winter.

This is a crop of young growth which is flowering this year.

So you'd advise anybody to go out and do that.

The shrubby Hypericums, if they're getting old and twisted,

you can cut them hard, and they will regrow.

They'll repay you with this wonderful show.

The whole world of Hypericums is waiting out there for gardeners

to discover, because so many of them are available now.

Really, let's not forget that they are sunny flowers,

happy flowers, I think.

I think a lot of people get very serious about gardening,

especially about plants.

But I've always believed that behind every tree, there's a laugh,

or at least a chuckle, or maybe a new Hypericum.

Oh, that's a thought.

I confess that, for years, I thought of Hypericum as being

a little bit dull, but that's changed my mind.

I shall get some.

Now this, which we call the cricket pitch,

is essentially a wildflower meadow.

The flowers are bulbs - crocuses start in February,

then you get a lovely flush of Narcissi,

followed by fritillaries.

That takes us through from late April into May.

After that, as the foliage of the bulbs starts to die back

and the flowers turn to seed, the grass itself grows up.

We've been making this for about ten years,

so we've got a regime established, whereby the grass isn't too strong.

It gives the flowers a chance to do their things without being swamped.

It's absolutely critical that we don't cut the grass

until the foliage of the flowers has died right back.

It looks lovely in that time.

This is not a question of untidy ground that we're tolerating.

It all looks good.

I love, for example, the seed heads of the clover,

the buttercup foliage, the plantains.

Nothing extraordinary, these are very, very ordinary plants...

but they're beautiful. Beautiful, and fantastic for insects.

Second to a pond, nothing is better for the ecology

and the wildlife in your garden than some long grass.

But to ensure that it stays looking good,

both in flower and with the grass and what we might call

the weeds, it's important to cut it and take it all away.

Now, the timing of this is dependent upon the flowers you're growing.

Don't cut it until they've set seed.

In this case, because they're early spring bulbs,

any time after midsummer is fine.

Now we've reached the end of July, beginning of August,

this is the time to do it.

Then it will stay cut right through till the end of the mowing season,

which here, is about October.

Well, that's the easy bit. Now I've got to rake it all up.

As you rake it up, of course, you expose the fact that

a lot of the grass is flat and will need cutting again and raking again.

But it is essential that you remove as much of the grass as possible.

If you leave grass on the ground, it decomposes

and adds nutrients to the soil,

and the grass will grow lushly

and strongly at the expense of the other plants I want to keep.

Now, I keep saying you must take the grass away,

but where do you take it to?

Compost heap, of course.

For most people, the content of their compost heap

is a mixture of grass mowing and kitchen waste.

And grass mowing, in particular, can be difficult to compost.

I've got a barrel-load of grass that was mown yesterday,

and if I just rummage around in there, already, you can see,

in the course of one day, if I pull it out, if I start to smear it,

it's getting that familiar, sticky, horrible green, puttyish sludge.

It smells bad already and that's because it's anaerobic -

there's far too much nitrogen.

All compost needs to be made up of green nitrogen material

and brown carbon.

Grass, for example, has got a high level of nitrogen.

But long grass, grass that I've cut from the cricket pitch,

is very high in carbon.

And to make that compost properly, I need to add green.

It's a question of getting the balance.

If you've got a lot of kitchen waste and grass clippings,

add straw, cardboard - cardboard is fantastic, by the way -

any brown material from the garden.

If you've got a lot of brown material, like long grass,

you need to add grass clippings, fresh leaves, kitchen waste -

anything that's high in nitrogen.

And if you keep that mix well mixed up, it'll compost.

You can see in here, where we have got a good mix -

and this is a fairly fresh heap - if I dig in there and pull back...

that's generating... I can feel the heat now.

That's generating a lot of heat.

There's a bit of everything in there, but it's really hot.

It's breaking down, most of that heat is coming from

bacterial activity, rather than decomposition.

And the way that we encourage the bacterial activity

to keep going is to turn it and get oxygen in there.

But the most important thing is to get the mix right,

particularly if you've got a lot of grass.

So I will put this barrel-load on the compost heap...

..like that.

And spread it about.

And obviously, these are big bays, but if you've got

a small tumbler or container, the principle is exactly the same.

Don't load it up with brown material, like long grass,

or green material, like grass clippings.

Mix them up and mix them up well.

And then I want to add some green grass on top of that.

Mix that up.

And that's enough for a while.

So, that's the key - compost your long grass, but do it gradually,

mixing it in with plenty of green material.

Now, this is a big job, and it's an ongoing one,

but here are some other jobs you can be

getting on with this weekend.

Mint is turning to flower rapidly,

and the leaves are losing their savour.

Cut half your mint, pared down to the ground, and water it well.

Then, when it regrows with fresh leaves, cut the other half

and treat it in the same way.

You'll have a supply of lovely fresh mint right through into autumn.

It's time to get winter cabbages, such as these January King,

into the ground.

Ideally they'll follow a legume crop, such as broad beans or peas.

In a raised bed, I space them about 12 inches apart,

but put them a little wider in open ground.

Firm them well and then give them a good soak.

And it's a good idea to cover them with a fine mesh netting, so that

the cabbage white butterfly can't land on them and lay their eggs.

Although plants and the soil are very dry at this time of year,

resist using a sprinkler, if at all possible.

If you must, only use it at night.

This is because water will evaporate off the foliage

quicker than it can reach the ground.

So, water directly onto the soil around the roots of plants.

And don't just do this lightly every day or so, but far better,

once a week, to give a plant a really good soak.

This cottage garden used to be just vegetables, and gradually more

and more flowers have come in and it's got more and more ornate.

It's something that gardeners everywhere are doing -

breaking the mould of traditional rows of vegetables

and adding a splash of colour.

Not just in gardens, but allotments too, as Joe's been finding out

in the first of his visits to some unique plots.

If you want a bit of peace and quiet, there's nothing better than

heading down to the allotment and doing a spot of gardening.

And they're still incredibly popular, with more than 300,000 in the UK.

But I'm on the hunt for some of the more unusual ones.

I'm looking for number 94. There's 90 there...not down there.

94!

This an allotment?

This really is different.

Aww, I've never seen an allotment like this before.

-Hi, Chris.

-Hi, Joe.

-This is absolutely beautiful!

-Thank you.

I would never expect to see it here,

but it's not an allotment, is it?

A lot of people say that, it's very unusual.

Basically, I wanted to create a garden for myself,

cos I never had a garden,

and I just wanted to create a nice space for myself to come and enjoy.

It draws you in, doesn't it?

The door's great, but actually, when you get to the front of the garden,

you just see ornamental planting and it makes you want to explore.

Is that the whole idea, that you really want to get in amongst it?

Exactly, I wanted people to be seduced by the garden really.

-So you built the boundaries up.

-Yes, I did.

I had the benefit of having a wall on the other side,

which created protection from the elements, and I put a fence

on the other side to put my climbers up and also create that seclusion.

Yeah, and you've got a wonderful selection of plants.

You have got a very keen eye - and a real plantsman, at the same time.

-Yeah, I try to be!

-HE LAUGHS

I do know my plants, but I know what I like and don't like,

and I try to combine things the way I feel looks good, cos I've

got an artistic background, so it's like painting a picture for me.

I think I've always liked the Mediterranean look,

so I try to put elements within the garden that remind me of home

and the Mediterranean and the sunshine.

-Where are you from originally?

-I'm Greek-Cypriot, so I'm from Cyprus.

-That's where my roots are.

-And where you born in Cyprus?

Yes, I was. I came here from the age of six.

Do you grow any edibles here? I can see a couple fruit trees...

The whole idea was this was to be my ornamental part,

but then when you go through my arch here, it totally changes

and I've got all my edible stuff up there.

-Lead on, let's go and have a look.

-Follow me.

I do like the way you've divided it up,

and it just goes on for ever, doesn't it?

We've got some fantastic figs smothered in fruit,

-really big fruit, as well.

-I know, really good cropper.

-Shows what a microclimate you've got in here.

-Definitely.

They have a lot of figs in Cyprus?

Figs are the main fruit in Cyprus. We love our figs.

-We eat them straight from the tree.

-Yeah.

And this thing here is my Sharon fruit,

which not a lot of people know about.

They think, being a tropical fruit, it needs to be in a

tropical climate, but they're hardy down to minus 15 in this country.

So, as you can see, it's quite prolific.

That's spot-on.

-You don't mind, do you, Chris?

-No, of course not.

-Good.

There seems to be quite a big Cypriot community on the allotments.

-That's what I've noticed, anyway.

-Yes, there is.

They tend to choose to have allotments in this country

because they've got restrictions with garden space, so they tend

to go for allotments, so they can grow more variety of things.

Is it because they want to grow stuff that you can't

get in the shops, necessarily?

Well, you can get them in the shops, but it's more expensive,

so if you can grow your own, and it's always nicer

when it's fresh out of your garden. It tastes better.

-You must produce so much here, more than you can eat.

-Definitely.

-What do you do with it all?

-Well, most of it I give away.

I give it to family, friends and also some of the plotholders here.

You really have packed plants in,

every square inch is filled with an ornamental or an edible.

You got any room for more?

I always have room for more, I'm a bit of a plant addict,

so if I see anything unusual, I always find space for it.

-You got to have it.

-Definitely.

It feels like a magical space you've created here,

and to think there's a community just outside the front door there,

but when you come in here, it's so tranquil and secluded

-and absolutely beautiful. Thanks for showing me around.

-You're welcome.

I love sharing my garden with people.

It is one of the most extraordinary allotments I've ever seen.

You can see it too, because it's open, as part of the

National Gardens Scheme, on the afternoon of Sunday, August 10.

And my guess is, there'll be quite a lot of people there to enjoy it.

Now, it's summer pruning time for fruit

and I know that this can confuse people.

"Why'd you do it, when'd you do it, how'd you do it?"

But actually, it's very basic and simple.

If you think that pruning in winter promotes growth - prune hard

in winter and it'll be followed by lots of water shoots, new growth -

pruning in summer restricts growth and stops it.

Which is why summer pruning tends to be restricted to trained fruit

- espaliers, cordons, fan shapes or, as I've got there, step-over apples.

These are very simple,

but if I left them unpruned now, they would quickly lose their shape.

So, the first thing I want to do is get rid of this year's

new growth that isn't part of the very basic structure, which is

one stem and then two side arms, if you like,

growing out along the width of the bed.

So, I'll remove that, not taking it right back down,

but leaving a couple of leaves.

Cut that there.

And the reason why I'm leaving a little bit

is because I want a spur to form.

I want fruit to form and, by cutting it back, that'll encourage

side-shooting, which will be spurs.

Good example here of strong spurs coming off and plenty of fruit.

And these are quite young,

but in time they can be absolutely laden with fruit.

It's a very good way of growing apples with hardly any space

taken up at all, and they look decorative.

That's got the basic shape.

You can see here at the end, I've left that untied,

it's sticking slightly up in the air,

and the reason for that is the tree - and this is a tree,

it's only trained to be small - wants to grow upwards.

That's where its energy is going.

But fruit forms best when it grows horizontally, which is why when you

have step-over apples or cordons, you get lots of fruit off them.

But to encourage that side-shoot to grown strongly,

I want to make it think it's going upwards, so I'm leaving it untied.

It's going up at an angle until it reaches its full length,

then I tie it down and that will help curtail its growth.

Come on.

That what you want? Nope.

Could it be that?

That's it for this week.

We'll be back next week, of course, here at Longmeadow,

but at a new time.

For the rest of this series we shall be coming on an hour later, at 9.30.

So, I'll see you then.

Bye-bye.